Ship of Theseus
by chapa3
Summary: Set 5 years after the events of ME3, alternate ending. Spectres Anatoly Ilyushin and Ashley Williams hunt for notorious terrorist Balak. Cutting through lies and scandals, the two uncover a truth that could easily spark a galactic war. Cyberpunk themed.
1. Transhumans

Author's Note: I revised the earlier story to make it fit with the extended cut. This stories follows the destroy ending. This story is also heavily influenced by the Ghost in the Shell films and anime series. With that said, enjoy.

_"The ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned had thirty oars, and was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch that this ship became a standing example among the philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same." _- Plutarch

"Balak Marsh'tur," I speak to myself, running my synthetic hand over the dossiers, each labeled by name. Dossiers of various people, mostly batarian. I feel the rough, brown texture of these dossiers. Feel the sensations seep from the electronic nerves in my synthetic fingers. Feel the sensations flow at instant speeds to my cybernetic brain, my amalgamation of flesh and machine. "Balak Marsh'Tur," I repeat, arcing my back on my black, cushioned chair, having the chair dig into my 90% synthetic 10% flesh and blood body, sending the sensations to my 95% synthetic 5% flesh and blood brain.

My name is Anatoly Ilyushin, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, aka a Spectre. I am a human from the nation of Zimgorod, from the human colony of Terra Nova. I fought in the human resistance movement on Earth during the Reaper invasion, in the city of London. During the battle, a downed chopper blew up close enough to blast off both of my legs, three fingers on my right hand, and a part of my face. A quick medical evacuation and an insane amount of luck allowed me to survive, although I was reduced into an amputee. Until the war was over, the Reapers were reduced into pieces, and a new era was born.

My name is Anatoly Ilyushin, a male human from the nation of Zimgorod, from the human colony of Terra Nova. But I don't have to be. I could be William Mathis, a human street vender from the United North American States, Earth. I could be Jiao Feng, a female human kick boxer from the colony of Shanxi. I could be Doran Sal'Malesh, a batarian slaver operating in the Terminus Systems. I could be a self-aware tomkah truck, crushing through debris on Tuchanka. All that is required is that my cyberized brain could be inserted into an appropriate synthetic body, male, female, human, asari, even machines as small as a printer and as large as a dreadnought, receive the proper nutrients necessary for my brain to survive, and I could become that. I am what they call a 'transhuman'. But I prefer that my name is Anatoly Ilyushin, a male human from Zimgorod, from the human colony of Terra Nova.

"Balak Marsh'tur," I repeat. The man nearly dropped an asteroid on my dolbani planet, only to be stopped by the human hero Ryan Shepard. Disappearing off the grid, he returns after the Reaper invasions, the highest ranking batarian left in the Hegemony Military. He went from trying to wipe out my planet to sacrificing ships alongside humanity in the Reaper wars. Now humanity wants his head once more. Heh, fickle galaxy we live in.

It was incredible really, at least the reports. Admiral Anderson…dead. The Illusive Man…dead. Yet he somehow survives, screaming like a lunatic. His legs were crushed by the rubble, must have hurt like hell. They found him alive…barely. He kept screaming "Liara! Liara!" I heard that he had to be treated for a throat infection…on top of his legs being amputated. Then one day, the galaxy collectively blinks, and Shepard and his blue asari 'friend' Liara T'Soni…they disappear.

Of course, prosthetics have existed for centuries already, and have allowed the otherwise handicapped to function in society. Also of course, the technology that was created in the aftermath of the Reaper wars completely changed how prosthetics truly work. For now, a brain can fool nerves into thinking that a lump of synthetic flesh coated over metal is really an arm. That it feels like an arm, looks like an arm, tastes like an arm, smells like an arm. By all means and purposes, it IS an arm. Except…except it does not need exercise and conditioning to look like a muscular arm. It does not need training to punch a hole through a wall, or break a person's jaw in a fight. So is it still an arm? Heh…you tell me.

None of this could be possible if it wasn't for the other piece of technology that was found in the Crucible's blueprints…the ability to cyberize a brain. Right now, there is a pair of holes in the back of my head, one right under each of my ears, that house a cord. Centered right behind my neck, is a third port that can allow another to plug their cord in, and a fourth port underneath that is necessary for cyberized brain transplants. With these cords, I could link with another entity and experience their memories, their thoughts, their emotions. I could talk with them without saying a physical word, and receive data uploads to my brain. And since I am a highly skilled hacker, one of the best in the Spectre forces, and as such, in the galaxy, I could plug my cord into someone's port, fry their brains, and kill them. For a limited time, I could hack their eyes, their ears, their senses, shut them off or replace them with something else. With great difficulty and for a limited time, I could hack their brains, and force them to act as I will them to act. I could enter their memories, forcibly read them, forcibly erase them, even, although this very rarely works, forcibly alter them. Of course, I cannot do this without risking that my target has firewall defenses of his/her/its own, defenses that can sometimes do just the same to me as I could do to my target. So I got to be careful in how I go around my business.

Even more impressive, I could enter the extranet and hack others just the same through indirect means, though that would be much trickier. The extranet is a large place, and if a target's internal defenses would attack my consciousness while it traverses the net, and kill it, I will die as well. And in places with Wi-Fi, I could access the extranet, or a local hub, without even having to connect my brain to a machine, though such connections are harder to protect through firewalls. Fortunately, or unfortunately at times, hacking is more limited on the Wi-Fi spectrum, and uploading my consciousness onto the extranet through Wi-Fi is nigh impossible.

As you can imagine, this new era of technology…this concept of 'transhumans'…it has changed life forever. We are stronger than before…faster than before. A single transhuman could do the labor that 10 humans could do. These prosthetics, most of them made from salvaged materials, has made the repairing of the relays, of the planets…it has made them not just possible…but relatively finished in the span of years. The relays at least. And the Citadel has been put together. They were the first major engineering projects to be initiated. They worked, amazingly. Earth, Palaven, and a lot of other planets still look uglier than burnt elcor. But hey, it's progress.

I put my feet on the desk, spreading dossiers around. My feet are only covered by my socks, these white fake cotton socks. I watch my big toe on my right foot point forward, then upward, then awkwardly to the left. Inside my brain, I enter my internal database, finding a memory that I want to relive. Ah yes, the Nevski Rangers versus the Gatesburg Skirmishers, 2180 Terra Nova ice hockey championship. I saw that live on the extranet, alone in my apartment with a bottle of vodka imported from Earth. I remember…right there, yes, with 6:23 minutes left in the 3rd period, Rangers down by 1, Pierre Dumas #21 makes an excellent pass to #23 Ryan Kildare. This is where Kildare takes 'the hit'…right there! Can't believe how he still maintained possession of the puck right there. Kchort, I doubt the goalie himself could believe what happened, which explains this gem of a goal when Kildare winds up and…

The door to my quarters splits open and a figure steps inside. I pause the memory in my head and tilt my eyeballs to the left, watching the slender woman strut that synthetic eye popping blue attire. "Ashley Williams, in the flesh…more or less. What can this humble little servant do for you?" I speak out, smirking, my slight Ukrainian sounding accent rolling off my synthetic tongue. "You are being more snarky than usual. Did I ruin your barnyard animal porn session?" Ashley fires back, smirking to herself. "Ha, you must be confusing me with Montezuma back over there," I laugh back. "I heard that, cabrón!" a voice yells from outside the walls, the ship's little Mexican pilot Hector Davila.

Ashley and I chuckle between each other. It is nice to have these moments to remind you that you are still human. That you are still an organic, in a sense. "In all seriousness Ash, what's up?" I ask, tilting my face toward her. The room is so silent that my neck gives off a mechanical sound as it turns to face her. "Just relaying to you what Hector told me. We're going to be in Zorya airspace in a few hours, so you might want to wrap up whatever you want to do, look over case notes, so on," Ashley says, looking at what I think is my feet.

"Yeah, I like to walk around in socks, so what?" I speak out, to which Ashley simply shakes her head and approaches my desk. Looking down on my desk, she speaks out "Our first Tier III assignment…our first real Spectre assignment. To think that this four-eyed scumbag once fought alongside us against the Reapers." I cup my hands behind my head, feeling the ports on my neck "Hey, never know who we might find on Zorya. I wouldn't be surprised if any of the other intelligence agencies are gunning for Balak. Like the Turian Blackwatch, the Salarian STGs, or the Systems Alliance Special Activities Group, aka SASAG." I chuckle to myself "Heh, and shit…kinda feel sorry for the guy, Balak I mean. Rallies what's left of his people, joins the resistance, makes himself a hero, and what does he get? Backstabbed by his people in Khar'shan and forced to go pirate."

Ashley sits down on my desk, looking at me. "Don't tell me you are feeling sorry for the bastard. He did try to drop an asteroid on your home planet," she responds, pulling the dossier from literally under her ass. "Hey, just saying. Trust me, I want to neutralize that four eyed fuck as badly as you want," I respond back, retreating to my internal database so I could finish that sweet goal by Kildare. Winding up the stick…and "Yes!" I fist pump the air, looking up to Ashley, who simply shakes her head in hopelessness. "Which memory is it this time? The time you actually finished a crossword puzzle without cheating?" she asks. "2180 Terra Nova hockey championship, game 6, the final game. Now tied 3-3," I reply, fast forwarding to the last 48 seconds of the period.

"Anatoly, how the hell did you get into the Spectres?" she asks, smiling to herself. "Space magic, Ash. Answer to every question," I sarcastically reply. "I thought the answer to every question is 42?" Ashley responds with a tingle in her tone. "Bah, you and your classical literature," I snort back at her. Ashley bursts into laughter and says "Hitchhiker's Guide is not a classic! Dead Souls is a classic. The Count of Monte Cristo is a classic. I don't know what Hitchhiker's Guide is called but it is definitely not a classic." I respond with slow, sarcastic clapping and say "Woah ho ho, we got a critic on the ship!" I watch as Ashley moves off the desk, sending a dossier to the ground, and responds "AND that type of behavior is why you are never going to get laid." Ouch, that was harsh. "Hey, that was a little below the belt," I bark back. I watch Ashley respond with a wink back at me. Did that really happen?

"Was that a wink, Ash?" I ask, really amused. "Nope, I just hacked your eyes and made it look like I winked," Ashley responds, smirking. C'mon, this is getting excessive. I immediately check my firewall when I then remember that there is no Wi-Fi on this ship "Ha, ha, very funny Ash. There ain't any Wi-Fi onboard. Your decision, remember?" I follow Ash's left arm as it rests itself on her hip. "So anyway…" she says, looking at me "got any ideas on Balak, from the info banks you were supposed to dig up?"

I pull my feet off of my desk and lean my chair closer to Ashley. "I got some information. Most importantly, I don't think that Balak is going to switch his cyberized brain to another body. It is offensive in batarian religion to remove one's eyes, as the soul leaves the body through them. Balak has been regarded as a very religious batarian, and as such, I doubt that he has switched or will switch bodies, or significantly alter his face. I do know that he is cyberized, according to reports from Council assets on Khar'shan. He is also apparently partially synthetic. Mildly though, as his right arm is synthetic and has a shotgun fitted inside it."

Ashley's hands move, finding rest on the edge of my desk. "Alright, so he is relatively unchanged appearance wise, his right arm is carrying a weapon, and his brain can be hacked. Most of his body cannot be hacked without a cord brain to brain connection, since he is mostly organic. What I want to know is why Zorya. He was last spotted in Zorya to…go pirate, as you said?"

I shake my head, not exactly what I meant. "Yeah, allow me to elaborate on the pirate comment. It turns out that the Blue Suns Head of Operations, Solem Dal'Serah, actually bankrolled Ka'hairal Balak during the latter's attempt in seizing power in Khar'shan. Balak promised to allow Solem's Blue Suns exclusive rights over the Eclipse and Blood Pack groups to operate on Hegemony owned planets and also reduced tariffs on the goods that they would sell. As we know, Balak seized power of the Batarian Hegemony and attempted to establish a military dictatorship. He was quickly ousted by forces in the political theater and the industrial complex. These ousters are now pushing Khar'shan into a civil war. Now, it seems that Balak fled to meet with the Blue Suns, possibly to pay back campaign money to Solem, maybe even to join the Blue Suns."

"Balak joining the Blue Suns?" Ashley asks me, probably trying to wrap her head around the idea. "Balak tried to turn Terra Nova into a wasteland out of his hate for humans, and now he not only granted a human owned company exclusive rights to sell products to what used to be his people, but might even start working for them? Something doesn't add up, Anatoly." I arc my head back as respond back "Hey, people change, especially when they get desperate." Ashley smiles, shakes her head, and says "People don't change when they get desperate. They just reveal more of who they are, or they become better liars." Ashley walks toward a wall in my spacious quarters, stopping a few feet before it. "What about Balak's associates? Sympathetic interest groups that followed Balak in exile from Khar'shan? Friends, family?"

"Hmm…" I ponder to myself, accessing a section of my internal database that I sectored off for the Balak case. "From assets on Khar'shan and from the hack into Khar'shan computers, courtesy of intel that the salarian STG shared with the Spectres, I've gathered that Balak's brother was killed on the Torfan 2178 raid. Actually he was executed by former Alliance marine and violent mercenary, the Butcher of Torfan, who is known in most circles as Zaeed Massani. As for parents, no records exist of them…it is heavily rumored on Khar'shan that Balak was abandoned as a child and taken in by the Batarian Liberation Army. As we both know, the BLA was a paramilitary organization, now defunct, that was created in response to human colonization of the Skyllian Verge. The BLA collapsed with the Battle of Torfan, and Balak was one of less than a dozen members that survived. Two of those members remained with Balak after the Torfan defeat, and it turns out that you, Ash, already met one of them."

Ash gives me a raised synthetic eyebrow, looking at me kind of like she is waiting for me to continue. "Well?" she asks me, talking with her hands. I turn to my holographic keyboard, move my finger toward an icon on my holographic screen, click it, and then click on an icon shaped like a projector. Suddenly, a beam of light shines from the ceiling and projects a holographic image onto the wall in my quarters, showing an image of the interior of some facility. I get up and approach the image, saying to Ash "May 21, 2183. Asteroid X57, in the Asgard System. You, Ryan Shepard, and Kaidan Alenko, may he rest in peace, muscled your way into the main facility, killing the slaver Charn along the way. By the way, I heard you took that bastard down yourself."

Ashley nods and responds "Yeah, he bunkered down and became a bitch to flush out, so I climbed to the upper level and dropped a small container full of nitroglycerine right next to his cover, blew four eyes into fourteen pieces. We were lucky as hell that his pass to the main facility still worked. Anyway, what were you getting at?"

"Alliance brass forked over, to the Spectres, the hidden camera footage of the facility shortly after the attack, with Balak being branded an intergalactic fugitive and all. I made a copy of the video and noticed a few things," I say, touching the holograph with my finger. The images move, showing Balak flanked by a batarian. I pause the video and tell Ash "The man flanking behind Balak, the one with an orange shade of skin, is Mesh Sal'Vushash. Mesh's brother Vad, the other BLA veteran that stuck with Balak, was the ringleader in the Franklin colony terrorist attack. Shepard took out Vad and his cronies, saved the spaceport, but the residential district was leveled. The Alliance cross referenced Vad's DNA with batarian signatures they had stored in their database and found a familial link between Vad's corpse and a cigarette bud found in the main facility on X57. Months before the Reaper invasions, the Alliance was able to identify Mesh through records and recordings left behind during the Battle of Torfan. Now get this. Turns out Mesh is not just a bodyguard, but a close friend of Solem AND the man that facilitated this Balak/Blue Suns alliance. From 2178 to 2181, the two of them worked on the same pirate ship, as sourced by word of mouth in the Terminus Systems. Seems Mesh and Solem made some nice credits from pirate raids across the Terminus Systems."

I hear Ashley ask me "What do we know about Mesh? Personality? Any synthetic parts? Any level of cyberization?" "Hmm…" I pause, searching inside my brain for answers "Found nothing on any synthetic body parts or cyberization. All information I have on Mesh is from this video, the scant recordings on Torfan, and from data collected back when Mesh and Solem ran as pirates together, which all obviously predate cyberization and advanced prosthetics. I know that Mesh is a chain smoker, though. The only time he doesn't appear with a cigarette in his mouth is in this video on X57, although in other footage of the facility, he could be spotted burning through a pack. An audio recording picked up Balak yelling at Mesh for smoking in his presence. Balak considers anything that causes self-harm to the batarian body to be taboo. Makes his decision to cyberize his brain and get a new arm seem even more unusual."

"Interesting. So Mesh is the liaison between Balak and Solem," Ashley pauses, turning left toward my large window and my nice little view of outer space. Ashley continues "I did my digging on the Blue Suns. As expected, the Aria T'Loak alliance between her organization and the other three mercenary gangs has dissolved. Rare mistake by Aria, but she should have known that Omega always returns to the status quo, and an alliance between all four gangs is NOT the status quo. Anyway, Darner Vosque and the Blue Suns was the second boss/organization to break off from Aria's little alliance, a few months after the Blood Pack cut their ties. His Blue Suns have basically resumed to business as usual, same old same old as it was before the Reaper invasion. That fiasco with holding the Eldfell-Ashland refinery hostage ended up doing serious damage to their reputation, and so Zorya saw a decline in foreign investment. End result is an 18% unemployment rate on Zorya and a lack of…well…anything to extort. Darner Vosque and Solem Dal'Serah have been hard at work doing damage control, but the bottom line is that Zorya has been making a lot less money for the Blue Suns now than before. As a result of reduced foreign investment and a staggering unemployment rate, a lot of makeshift prosthetics have ended up in Zorya, considered the best that most of the populace could afford, so don't be surprised if you see a lot of exposed metal."

Heh, exposed metal. "Probably illegal parts sold on the black market, the parts that the Blue Suns wouldn't bother selling to the real clients." Ashley nods at what I said and asks "So, looking forward to our first real mission together? Catching one of the most wanted terrorists in the galaxy? Proving Jondum Bau that we are competent enough for work outside of staring at holographic screens and keeping intoxicated diplomats from falling off balconies?" Damn you Ash, you just reminded me of all those years spent in the Security Room, bashing my head against a steel wall. "I remember that time where we had to escort that drunk elcor diplomat into his hotel room. Blayt, if it wasn't for our synthetic bodies, we would have both gotten hernias. Shit, listening to that behemoth sing…and now you reminded me of that!" 'With utmost sincerity, I pine for thee, for truthfully, you are meant for me,' oh shut the fuck up, you monotone elephant!

"Of course, Council didn't want to put us at risk when the Citadel was being renovated and security was adjusting to the new wave of technology. Felt we belonged on the Citadel, working with C-SEC to make sure that nothing destabilizing happens on the station. I get that, but fuck those were some horrible years." I nod to what Ash says and watch her grow silent for a moment. "Yep," she continues "time does fly. It's almost going to be the 5 year anniversary of the destruction of the Reapers. October 17, 2191, a few weeks away from V-Day. So much time has passed, so much has changed…"

Looking through my window, outer space is beautiful…all the dots peppering the darkness. The galaxies, distant galaxies like our own. "You know, galaxies themselves evolve by merging together into a larger entity. They get larger and larger, evolution through addition. Makes you wonder…if that is the fate for organic life as well. If we are all just stars, swimming around a giant black hole, bumping into other galaxies, merging, forming a larger galaxy. Evolution through addition…ain't that what we are already doing?"

I swear, I have spent nearly the past five years working with Ash, but I never saw her heave a sigh like she heaved just now. I guess I never had the chance to, since we haven't really had the opportunity to speak like this, always heading our separate ways after work. She speaks out "Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will…to strive…to seek…to find…and not to yield".

"Tennyson?" I ask. "Yeah, how did you know," she asks me, looking bemused. I smirk and reply "You always carry that paperback book, that collection of Tennyson poems." Looking at Ash, I could guess that she wants to say something.

She turns to me and speaks "Is it strange that I could upload all of the poems into my cyberized brain and reread them whenever, but I instead choose to only read them on printed paper…so…so…so I am reminded that I am a human and not a machine?"

You too, Ash? "Nope, I see nothing wrong with that. Whatever makes you feel comfortable, go for it," I respond. Damn Ash, you too…

Smirking, I say "You know who I feel envious of? Shepard. Everyone went through the meat grinder against the Reapers, but he gets to escape to some unknown planet with an extremely rich and powerful asari, who happens to be the Shadow Broker. Lucky svoloch, never having to work again for another day."

Ash frowns and says "I wouldn't say he got off so well. None of us did…but over time…I started to see Shepard's mind almost fall apart. I guess it has been falling apart since Akuze. Then Kaidan Alenko…well. And the Reaper invasions…seeing close friends die before his eyes, reduced to animals before his eyes. I remember, after that mission at the monastery…where Samara killed herself so as to not violate her Justicar Code. And then Shepard killed her remaining daughter…he said it was because he couldn't allow another banshee to be created. I think Liara said something to him about the matter, because he then entered my quarters…pulling his hair, crying, screaming about…I don't even know what he was screaming about. It was as if all those years…he finally cracked. He didn't even realize that I was there. He seemed better the next day…but I'll never forget that. It seems he suffered a PTSD delivered straight from the heavens…though I guess you can say that about everyone in this galaxy right now."

We stand there, together, quiet for what felt like five minutes. I didn't time it. "Well," I break the silence "we should suit up. Zorya is approaching and we got heads to break." Ash slowly nods at me, at least I think that was a nod, and responds "Yeah, that we do, sailor."


	2. Death and Taxis

"M-3 Predator pistol with laser sights and VI target assist, check. M-96 Mattock assault rifle with extended clip, optical scope, VI target assist, and fully automatic firing setting, check. Everything's good on your end, Anatoly?" Ashley yells out to me. I turn around and spot her checking her guns. She just suited up in her field attire, a tightened black and grey Kevlar suit, black Kevlar boots, and fingerless Kevlar gloves. Around her waist is a Kevlar belt. Underneath her Kevlar suit, and while she's not looking, I can barely make out the outline of her titanium steel groin cup. On her left hip, her pistol, same as mine, is fastened to a titanium holster attached to her belt. Her rifle, same as mine, lies on the floor, recently fastened to its Titanium alloy rifle sling. On the pants section of her Kevlar suit, a few pockets dangle out, probably energy bars and medi-gel inside them. Basically the same thing that I am wearing and carrying. With the advancement in synthetic parts and cyberization, combat armor has slowly been phased out in covert groups and spec op forces. Synthetic bodies are capable of resisting most temperature extremes and kinetic barriers have been rendered mostly useless as they have been proven to be extremely easy to hack and disable. In fact, the synthetic bodies that most spec ops combatants use have been proven to be as strong, if not slightly stronger, then high-grade body armor. Plus, the reduced weight makes it easier to move. All that is need is Kevlar to serve as a fire retardant, since the metal on my body is covered in synthetic skin. And I really don't want to smell like burning flesh.

"Almost done, just need to put on my jacket," I put on my thin, grey, varren skin jacket and zip it shut. I watch Ashley zip up her dark blue varren skin jacket, stopping the zipper a couple of inches short of the top. She tucks her jacket under her belt as I do the same. We both fasten the buckle on our belts and sling our rifles around our backs. A second belt on rifle holster, this one made of Velcro, is pulled out as we both fasten our rifles tightly to our backs. Don't want to lose them when we make our landing.

We are preparing for our drop off on Zorya. The ship we are on, the MSV Hadrianus, is a Kowloon sized merchant vessel that has been retrofitted with a pair of wings, four mass accelerator cannons with two on each wing, and an interior that has been converted into a more comfortable living space. We had a section of the cargo bay converted into a room full of files, dossiers, datapads, even combat simulations for practice. Even figured out a way to seal that room and hide the entrance. The rest of the cargo hold is full of crates containing assorted junk, meant to serve as a cover if any government agency decides to inspect out ship. Well, more so as a cover in territories outside of Citadel space.

"Hector! We are good to go!" I yell out, hoping that Hector is still listening in on us in the cargo hold. There is a pause as we, or at least I, anticipate Hector's voice. After a dozen seconds, I hear Montezuma mumble, and then speak over the PA system "Lo siento, I took too large a bite of my meatloaf lunch." Nice one, Hector. "I'll fly you in close to the ground and stall the ship. Thun, the main colony's capital, is half a klick away to the north/northeast, depending on where you land." I hear Ash speak out "Thanks Hector. You remember the pickup spot?"

"Si, Ashley. The abandoned blue cotton plantation south of the capital," Hector responds. "Good, remember to re-enable Wi-Fi and keep contact in case things get hairy and we need to improvise," I yell out, lowering my jacket's zipper by a centimeter. "Yea, yea, ruso, I know the drill," Hector responds, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Alright, let's get this show started," I speak out, stepping toward the end of the cargo hold. I feel the spaceship slowly reduce the acceleration as Ash walks toward my right side. "Nervous, Anatoly?" she asks. "Heh, yeah, a bit. Never base jumped without a parachute before," I answer, feeling my right synthetic leg with my left synthetic leg. "Don't be a chicken Anatoly, our advanced prosthetics can withstand falls of up to 1,500 meters without any risk of damage," she responds, playfully smiling at me "Bwok!" Very funny, Ash.

The rear entrance to the cargo hold opens up, creaking open at a pretty damn slow pace. "Buena suerte, everyone!" Hector yells out over the PA system. Good luck, Hector, try not to choke on your lunch.

"Ready, Ash?" I ask. "Ready if you are," she responds motioning me to go first. Fine.

I run up a few steps, stop on the ledge, and slowly allow myself to fall out of the ship. 300 meter base jump, with Zorya's acceleration due to gravity being just exactly like Earth's, that gives me roughly 5.53 seconds before I land. As my feet are about to leave the edge of the opened door to the cargo hold, I spot Ash about to fall off as well. Here we go!

Blayt, fucking trees everywhere! Got to find…

*Thud* Damn tree branch had to break my fall. *Thud* I land awkwardly on the jungle ground, laying on my side, a broken tree branch the size of a salarian falls down next to me. Surprisingly, I feel perfectly fine, a little sore maybe, but that's it. *Thud* That must be Ashley. 'Ash, you there?' I contact her silently through Wi-Fi. C'mon, allow me to patch through. 'Yeah, I'm good Anatoly, tracking you right now…' she responds through Wi-Fi. I hear someone knocking on a tree. "You alright there Anatoly?" I turn to Ash and answer "Yeah, a tree branch slowed my descent. That would have made for a nice video for the extranet."

Fucking jungle everywhere! A pyjak walks up to us, stares at Ash, stares at me, and then scurries up a tree. "C'mon Anatoly, get up before that pyjak starts throwing shit on our heads," Ashley speaks to me, which is more than enough motivation for me to get back on my feet. "Which direction to Thun?" I ask Ash, still a bit dazed to find out by myself. "One second…pulling a satellite image of our location...alright, we need to go North Northeast for 390 meters…plenty of time for what I have planned," Ashley speaks out, loosening the belt from the rifle holster. We both walk toward the edge of Thun. I loosen the same belt on my rifle holster and ask "What you have in mind?"

"I just hacked into Zorya customs and falsified their records, their firewall was a joke. While we were on the ship, I typed out a letter about a pair of tourists needing a livery cab to the extremely expensive Hotel Supernova. The Blue Suns won't be able to resist the bait," Ash answers. Smart idea. "So the plan is that we take for a ride whoever the Blue Suns send to kidnap us, right Ash?" "Ash? I don't know who you are talking about, Jonas. My name is Wanda Savickas, and we have been married for 5 years already. Did you bump your head on a tree?" Eh, strange choice for an alias, but I won't ask. Does fit the whole tourist image.

"So what's the course of action once we turn the tables on our cab driver? He's going to notice our guns and realize something is up," I ask, knocking a tree branch out of the way. "You are going to run in front of his car, hack the engines, disable them for as long as you could. Think you could shut them off for fifteen seconds?" Think I can? Pfft! "Ha! Unless our cabbie is driving Councilor Yavari's car, I doubt the security measures and counter-measures will be an issue," I respond back. "Good," I hear Ash say "I'll subdue our mark and we'll force him to take us to the ringleader of this ransom operation, and go up the ladder from there until we can arrange a face to face with Solem."

"Alright, sounds good," I answer, taking in my surroundings. A red radio tower stands in the distance, flanked on its left by a small, empty parking lot. The city of Thun roasts in the starlight in front of us. A cesspool of corruption and violence, one of those outlaw worlds that seem to infest the Terminus Systems. Interesting and dangerous place to have fun in, Zorya I mean, but not my first choice for retirement.

Ash and I exit the jungle and approach the parking lot. In front of the parking lot, there is a dirt road two lanes wide. On the other side stands a warehouse whose wall is covered in graffiti. A blue X3M skycar hovers a foot above the dirt road, turning left into the parking lot. I scan the car from the distance and tell Ash through silent Wi-Fi 'I count 1 guy, appears to be human. No Blue Suns armor'. 'Acknowledged, Anatoly. We get a few meters closer and then make our move,' Ash responds.

1 meter. 2 meters…3! We sprint toward our 'cab', drawing our Predator pistols. The door of the X3M flaps open and the driver yells out what I think is "Hey, you called for a pick up?! Wait…what the…"

I immediately run toward the front of the car, gun drawn on our mark, who now appears to be an olive skinned human with a goatee and a buzz cut, dressed in brown and tan colored clothing. "Out of the car, now!" I yell out and go to work on the engines. Hacking…Shit! The engines are turning on. Almost have access…shoot, my feet are leaving the ground, Ash where the fuck are you? Got it, disabling engines. *Thud*

I fall down what I think was a couple of feet, barely avoided having my legs crushed under the car. I turn around and see our mark already on the ground, face first, Ash's Predator pointed at his head. "Who are you? Police? Trust me, I am with the Blue Suns, you don't want to be doing this!" Ash speaks out "Special Tactics and Reconnaissance. Your day just got a lot more busy, you son of a bitch!" "What?!" our mark blurts out "I did nothing wrong! …what you want with me?" Nothing wrong? "Ha, look at this smug asshole. Came here expecting to land a big ransom, says he's with the Blue Suns 10 seconds ago, and now has the goddamn sovist to say that he has done nothing wrong. Listen closely, you little shit. The more you cooperate, the faster this will get resolved." I pat the prick down and find a M-3 Predator pistol. "You won't be needing this," I say, tossing the pistol several meters out of the parking lot, toward the jungle. I watch Ash pull the man to his feet, the barrel of her Predator resting right on the back of his neck. She speaks out "Listen, and listen closely. I am going to tell you exactly what you are going to do, and you are going to do just that. Do anything else without our permission and one of us will drill a few holes into you. Got it?" Our mark nods nervously as Ash stuffs him into the driver seat at gun point. She sits on the rear seat diagonally across from the driver seat as I sit down right behind our new friend, my recently drawn Predator pistol pointed on the driver seat. "Close the car door," Ash speaks out. Our mark obliges, fidgeting nervously. "Alright, my partner is going to re-enable the engines. When they are reactivated, you are going to drive us to your boss. Understand?" Ashley concludes, the laser dot from her pistol dancing on our mark's temple. "Shit…" our mark mutters out as I reactivate the engines. "Excuse me? I did not give you permission to fucking speak!" Ashley growls, probably making our mark even more nervous. Got to give it to her, she can be scary when she has to be.

The X3M slowly hovers through the city of Thun. Looking to my left, my gun still pointed at our mark's seat, I see warehouses, empty lots, and a sign in front of a factory that says 'Myleris Concrete'. Our mark drives annoyingly slow as we cross through this industrial district. Annoyed of the silence, I hack into the car's stereo and turn it on. This jazzy asari music plays out at full volume, which startles both Ash and our mark. I immediately lower the volume and hear Ash speak to me through a secured localized Wi-Fi 'You got to be kidding me'. I shrug her off and speak out "Hey, you. What's your bosses' name?" Our mark takes a left turn, going around the corner of a 10 floor storage building. "I said…what is your bosses' name!" I repeat, digging my gun into his seat so he could feel it. "He…he..her name is Bulla Ruv'harah, she is a batarian. That's all I know about her, I swear!"

Ash speaks to me silently 'Running search on Bulla Ruv'harah through the Blue Sun's data I collected earlier…yep, got a match to one of the Blue Suns officers that I did background searches on. Yea…ex-slave for a Terminus System pirate captain, killed the captain and took command of his crew. Took her entire crew and herself and enlisted in the Blue Suns. She was put to work in merchant ship hijackings, piracy ransoms, looks like she impressed the upper management. Quickly promoted to Lieutenant ranking, then to Captain ranking, and now runs this ransom and extortion racket on Zorya. Her current crew is mostly comprised of the pirates she commanded before she enlisted into the Blue Suns. As for the makeup of her crew, details are fuzzy, but they should number in 20s.' I respond with 'Thanks Ash' and look around our surroundings. I look to my left and notice that the concrete mixing factory is only a couple of blocks away, after 10 minutes of driving with light traffic. 'Ash, our mark is stalling us, either driving the long way or in circles. Keep your gun at the ready, I am going to hack his brain,' I silently communicate to Ashley. I turn my head to Ashley and watch her nod in acknowledgement. Reaching for the cord on the left side of my head, the two cords are basically the same, I quietly pull it out with my left hand and wait for an orange light. The car takes a right turn around what looks like a gym, I assume so as I spot a pair of turians walking out of the facility with gym bags and towels on their necks. An orange light signal appears in front of our slowly moving car, orange being the color for stop on Zorya roads. As the car slows to a stop, I quickly move the pistol in my right hand to the top of our mark's head, push his head down, and shove my cord into the port in his neck. "Please, don't…" our mark mutters pathetically.

"Alright, let's see what we have here…hacking…hacking…firewalls bypassed...your name is Sharif Barza," I speak out. Sharif quickly nods, driving faster, more erratically. "Hey, Sharif, I didn't tell you drive like an idiot!" Ashley yells out, letting the laser dot on her pistol refract through the window in front of Sharif. I continue to dig through his brain "Hey, you're from Amaterasu, same colony that my partner is from. You…attended Aldrin High School from 2175 to 2179." I turn to Ash to see her suddenly look more animated. "No shit, I think I remember you Sharif. You graduated when I already was serving in the Alliance. It's me, Ashley Williams," she speaks out. "Ashley Williams? You were eldest sister right? Of that military family? Jesus above, what a small galaxy!"

I continue to dig through his brain…hmm this is interesting…got it! "Bulla and her crew are at the 'Shol Alpha Taxicab Depot', on 148th Street and Culpepper Road," I yell out, to which I spot Ash nodding in response. "Better get moving, Sharif," Ashley says.

After several minutes of driving, this time at normal speeds through normal routes, Sharif pleads out "Please, Ms. Williams. Let me go, you have the address. Please, Bulla is going to kill me!" Ashley points her pistol at Sharif's face and responds "I'm not risking the chance that you'll contact Bulla and alert her. You knew the risks when you signed up. Don't cry me a river!" The car returns to silence, outside of the asari music, until a minute later where Sharif suddenly stops the car and says "I am not driving to my death, Ms. Williams. Whatever you can do to me, Bulla can do worse!" Alright, Sharif, you asked for it. "ARGH!" Sharif groans out as I simulate the feeling of needles jabbing through his skin. I can't conventionally control someone's mind, but I can erase memories, carefully insert memories, and toy with their senses to replicate mind control in a psychological sense. Like if I could find out that your greatest phobia is that of spiders, I could hack your electronic eyes and your electronic nerves into seeing and feeling a cluster of spiders crawling on your arms. This way I could administer punishment and reward to get the behavior I want from someone. Like Pavlov and that dog.

Sharif mutters "Damn you" under his breath and proceeds to drive. "I see, Ms. Williams and Mr…" Sharif speaks out. "Ilyushin," I say. "Mr. Ilyushin…I see that I am a dead man no matter the situation. Either the Blue Suns, Bulla or Solem, will kill me, or you will…I accept that. It is funny really, how I ended up in this mess. Applied as a security guard on Cuervo, got replaced by a damned mech robot. Kept applying for a new job, tried C-Sec, so many employers…no one would hire someone as unskilled as me when they could easily buy a mech. Met a Blue Sun in a bar, got an invite…of course I joined! I saw more credits there then I ever saw in my life. Why should I die for making money doing what I do best?" I hear Ashley groan and respond "Shut up, Sharif! Don't try fishing for sympathy, because we don't care about what happens to you. You picked your side, too late to go back now. We just want your boss, understand?"

Sharif yells out "If you just want my boss, then let me go! Please, I won't contact Bulla. I'll run far away, never come back to the Blue Suns. Please Ashley, we were neighbors! That has to account for something! What would your parents think of you getting me killed?!" Bad choice of words Sharif. I watch as Ashley's face turns stern with rage "Fuck you, Sharif! You don't even know that my parents are dead! My entire family, DEAD! You have no idea how much I fucking lost in the Reaper war so stop playing with my emotions in your desperate hope of getting out of this mess, UNDERSTAND!" Ashley hisses and then continues "Don't bullshit yourself. If we were just a pair of tourists, you would have kidnapped us, robbed us, held us ransom, do whatever your Blue Suns do to their captives when they find out that no one will pay the ransom. Us attending the same high school doesn't mean anything, and you know it!"

"DAMNIT MS. WILLIAMS! I could have contacted Bulla through Wi-Fi and driven you into an ambush, but I didn't! So please let me go in repayment of such a favor!" Nice try, Sharif. "No, the reason you didn't contact Bulla was because this car only has Wi-Fi inside it. Ash and I could communicate between each other, but we couldn't access the extranet without bypassing a rather strong firewall that you apparently do not have clearance through. I noticed that within minutes of being inside this car. By design, right? So your victims can't call for help? Sneaky," I conclude, appearing to have called Sharif on the carpet as he gets very, very quiet, probably pondering as to how screwed he is. I notice that we are driving on Culpepper Road, just having passed 121st street…now 122nd street.

"Look, I can tell you more information, Ms. Williams and Mr. Ilyushin. Did you know that she used to be a Terminus Systems pirate captain? Her pirate crew became her Blue Suns crew," Sharif rats out, grasping for straws. Alright, I'll bite "Yeah, we know Sharif. Can you give us any interesting details on her crew?" Sharif nervously blurts out "Her crew consists of 22 members, including me. At max, she would send out 2 groups of either one or two people to pick up 'special' clients that would make for nice targets. I am the only one being sent out, so all 23 of them, including Bulla would probably be in the vicinity of the depot, close enough to protect Bulla if necessary. 5 members of her crew, including herself, are batarian, 8 are turian, 9 are human, including me, and her personal bodyguard is a quarian named Zayel. He is a crack shot and a cleaner for the Blue Suns. Sometimes he gets called away to personally work for Solem Dal'Serah, so he may not be at the depot right now. If you are lucky, he won't be."

"Thanks for the heads up, Sharif. Now keep pace, got a couple of blocks to go," I speak out, poking the barrel of my pistol into the back of Sharif's neck. "Please, please, please! Let me go! I helped you, I drove you here, I tipped you off. You have no reason to put me through this!" Ashley yells out "Shut up, Sharif. When we stop by the depot, I want you to get us into the back of the place. Oh, and don't think about tipping Bulla off, cause your going through the door first and I don't think they will care if you get caught in the crossfire." Sharif responds, sounding like he is ready to cry "Please! Just let me go!" I shut him up by again poking his neck with the barrel of my pistol, causing him to jolt.

The X3M comes to a stop by a large concrete building, appearing to be around 3 floors high and a block wide. "Alright, Sharif. Get out!" I yell out, manually unlocking the door of the car. Sharif slowly steps out, his hands raised. I exit and pull him by the back of his shirt collar, removing my cord and digging my pistol into his chest. Ashley exits the car after us, pulling her Mattock rifle out of her holster. We slowly step toward the back entrance, a red metal door. Ashley crouches next to the door and holds still. 'My sensors are picking up five heartbeats in the near vicinity. From the audio I am picking up, sounds like a poker game, with four at the table and one sorting through files in an office room behind the right wall,' she says silently. 'Can you upload a picture of Bulla into me so I won't shoot her by accident?' I silently respond, as Ashley pauses for a second. 'Got the pic, Ash. Thanks,' I add. Yop tvayu mayt, Bulla is one ugly urod! 'Switching to cloak, Anatoly. You know what to do,' she replies. Ashley disappears in front of our eyes, cloaking herself. I follow suit, cloaking myself. I push my pistol into Sharif's back and whisper into his ear "Better start knocking." I swear I heard the man whimper like a wounded animal.

*Knock* *Knock*

I overhear someone yell to another person, telling them to get the door. A few seconds later, the door swings open, at first partially, and then quickly all the way. A female turian in blue and grey street clothes stands in the doorway, clutching a pair of cards in her left hand, asking "Sharif? You back already? Where are the marks?" I carefully aim my Predator, letting the laser dot climb to the left side of her head. I fire out a shot, a mass accelerated bullet that clears through her head, spraying blood, brain matter, and a couple of wires out of her head. The two cards fall out of her hand as the turian collapses on her left shoulder. The three poker players, two female humans and a male turian, draw their guns while still seated, all appearing to be wielding pistols. "NO!" Sharif yells out as they empty a few rounds into the chest of my human shield. I fire a shot at the turian, striking him in his chest, which causes him to fall out of his chair. I serve a bullet to the female human closest to me, shoot her out of her chair, and then turn to the other human who just realized that there is a cloaked gunman in the room. She tries to kick a wooden table over as makeshift cover but I fire a pair of bullets through the table. One of them apparently hit because I hear her choke and then collapse on the ground, must have been a lucky neck shot.

The character that Ash mentioned…the one that was in a nearby office? He, either a batarian or someone fluent in their language, yells out "What the fuck is going on out there?!" My thermal sensors pick up a figure holding some sort of single handed firearm, maybe a pistol or a submachine gun. The figure approaches a wooden door and kicks it open, revealing a genuine batarian in Blue Suns armor, holding a Tempest submachine gun. As I prepare to fire, Ash reappears to the right of the batarian and drops her Mattock, her back to the wall. Stupid sensors need to be upgraded to pick up cloaked friendlies! I almost shot her!

Ash grabs the batarian's left arm with her left hand, extends his arm outward, and drives her right fist into his left elbow, appearing to have shattered it. As the batarian prepares to arc his submachine gun at Ash with just his right hand, she grabs his right wrist with her left hand, draws her Predator pistol with her right, and empties a bullet into his right arm, disarming him. As the Tempest submachine gun hits the ground, Ash tosses him to ground, away from the dropped guns, and stomps on his right ankle. As she turns to face me, she suddenly yells "DUCK!" So, I do just that, as Ash fires two shots to my left and I hear a woman scream. I turn around to see the first female human that I shot hold her ribs as she crumbles to the ground. The male turian that I shot is also up, and the scaly prick is aiming his pistol at me. Suddenly, he drops the pistol and grabs his face, saying "MY EYES! I CAN'T SEE SHIT!" I take that to be my queue, and so I open fire. One of my shots hits slightly to the right of his midsection, causing him to turn slightly to the right. A second enters through his left ribs, causing the merc to crumble on his right shoulder. He twitches for a few seconds and then, according to my sensors, his heart stops beating.

"Now that that's been taken care of, listen here four eyes. Where is Bulla?" Ash turns to our captured batarian asshole. "I'm just her secretary, okay? She's in the bathroom, past the door in her office, on the other side of the depot. Please don't kill me! Fucking shit, I survive the Purgatory getting blown from the underworld to fucking back and now I get a pair of smooth skin assholes hunting for my Captain!" the batarian blurts out. "You mean the ship that Jacqueline Nought was on, that she blew up?" I ask, crouching by his side. "Who the fuck? You mean Jack, Subject Zero? Is that what she calls herself now?" the batarian asks. "That's what her name says on the ledger in Grissom Academy. Didn't you watch the news?" I inquire. "No, I have better things to do then watch the fucking apocalypse, now can I go? I gave you what you want!" the batarian yells out, pulling himself to a seated position, his back resting on the wall. Ashley aims her pistol at him and says "Sorry. Loose lips sink spaceships, you know?" The batarian cringes, almost ready to cry, and says "Oh c'mon, give me a break!" A shot from Ash's pistol patterns the ground in batarian blood and brain matter as we step into Bulla's office room.

Stepping inside, I spot a laptop computer on a desk and a few open cabinet drawers. To the left of the desk is a wooden door. "Good thing Zorya is so underdeveloped, with most of the buildings being 21st century quality and all. No need to bypass anything to open doors, just need some brute force," I comment, zeroing in on the laptop. "What the hell you doing, Anatoly?" I hear Ash speak out. "I'm trying to dig into this kidnapping racket that the Blue Sun's are working, could get some solid intel," I reply, initiating my hack through the laptop's firewall. "Or you could end up downloaded one hundred copies of batarian spam while Bulla runs away," I hear Ash reply. "It will just take a few more seconds to crack…here we go, downloading," hehe, jackpot! "What the hell is so funny, Anatoly?" I hear Ash again. "Got records on the last few ransoms they been pulling, some other files I haven't opened, plus 8,219 credits in ransom money…what? Who says Spectres can't profiteer?" I reply as Ash gives me a cold, annoyed stare. C'mon Ash, better in my hands then some pirates, right?

The two of us move to the door and take cover by it, me taking cover on the door's left, Ash on the door's right. Ash adjusts her Mattock rifle in her arms and aims it's buttstock at the doorknob. I take a deep breath and hear a thud, followed by a second thud, followed by a large crash as light peers into the office and a barrage of bullets fly into the wall. Wait a minute, if these walls are made of concrete…phew, seems that there was a reinforced layer of metal inside the walls. Hearing the sound of metal clanging never been such a relief…I thought I was going to become either Swiss cheese or sandwiched by the second floor.

Ash and I raise our Mattock rifles and run through the doorway, spraying concentrated bursts at anything that moves. I spot six mercs, four of them are human, three male, one female, while the other two are Turian, one male one female. To the right of us is a glass wall and the entrance to the depot, the sunlight from the star Faia shining through the glass. We each take cover behind a taxi cab, mine on the right, hers on the left, as I hear the shattering of glass and the bending of metal. Ash silently yells at me 'We each hack a cab and launch them at the hostiles, mop up any survivors!' Good idea, Ash. I nod and switch from lying on my back to crouching behind the cab, standing on my left knee. 'I hacked the engines, they are on. Moving toward the controls…got them. How about you, Ash?' I silently speak to her. 'Done and done, ready?' She replies, as the mercs alternate between suppressing fire and reloading. 'Yeah, three…two…one!' I silently yell as we both launch our respective cover into two crowds of mercs. My car crashes though a glass railing and pins the group of humans into the back wall. Ash's car smacks into the two turians, crushing the male under the car while sending the female flying across the room. I hear the sound of either her skull or her cyberized brain crack as she hits the concrete wall head first.

Ash and I move toward the back wall, walking up a ramp, and I spot a pair of doors, one to the left of us, one in front of us. Neither of the doors have any form of identification to show that one of them is a bathroom. 'You got the one on the left, I got this one,' Ashley communicates to me. I nod and take cover by my designated door, walking over the dead female turian's corpse. I hear Ash breach her door and so I follow suit, knocking down the door to a supply closet and a terrified batarian merc holding a Bowie knife. The batarian swipes his knife at my Kevlar suit, scratching it, as I pump a burst of three bullets into his heart and midsection. The batarian falls on his side, dead, when I suddenly hear something crash through a wall. I turn around and see that Ash has, though all her strength, speared a batarian women through a concrete wall. Chort!

Ashley draws her Predator pistol and pistol whips the batarian, knocking her out. I watch her head turn to me and say "We got Bulla, Anatoly. You carry her, I'll grab one of those taxi cabs outside. We are taking her to a salarian contact of mine. His name is Felarn, has a safe house where we could lay low from the Blue Suns. Oh, and I am driving."


End file.
